In earlier posts, I discussed two pieces of evidence for writing at desks in the late antique period, a relief from Ostia and a relief found at Portus. Another piece of evidence that Metzger mentioned in his well known chapter on desks was a mosaic floor panel from a church in Thabraca on the coast of Tunisia.1 It was published in 1906 by Paul Gauckler.2
The figure behind the desk has been identified as both a banker and a scribe. It is unfortunate that the inscription near the figure’s head is not better preserved (just a couple letters survive, probably the remains of [I]N PA[CE]). The figure holds a stylus and writes–in a way oriented toward the viewer of the mosaic rather than toward the writer–the letters MA. The woman below the desk is identified by the name Victoria.
These mosaic panels covered burials under the church floor. The panel with the writer and Victoria covered a lead coffin in which two skeletons were found. The panel is oddly oriented relative to the other panels and positioned directly in front of the apse, but off center:
Gauckler’s publication includes one photograph from the excavation, and fortunately, it happens to show this mosaic in context. The raised apse is visible on the left side of the image:
The mosaic is now in the Bardo Museum in Tunis, and the details are a bit easier to discern in a color image:
The date of this mosaic is ambiguous. Gauckler places the construction of the chapel in the age of Constantine and dates its abandonment to the end of the fifth century, which means that the production of the mosaics would likely fall into the second half of the fourth century or the first part of the fifth century. Yet, the evidence for this chronology is not clearly articulated, so those dates should probably be regarded as tentative.
Variant Readings 
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